Forbes.com has a slideshow of the five IFOCE events from the past year with the largest payouts (prize money and apparance fees):

1. Krystal Square Off $75,000 ($50,000 in prizes)
2. Nathan’s $60,000 ($20,000 in prizes)
3. P’Zone Chow-lenge $50,000 (no announced prizes)
4. Stroehmann’s Sandwich Slamm $10,000 ($10,000 in prizes)
5. Harrah’s Louisiana Downs World Grits Eating Championship $10,000 ($10,000 in prizes)

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Furious Pete has added a picture of an advertisement for bodybuilding.com to his gallery. A caption says the ad will run in the August and September editions of Muscle and Fitness, Flex and Ironman Magazine

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Here is section 5 of the WLOCE contract according to Andrew “A-Bomb” Lane’s blog:

5. Entertainer is free to enter into this agreement and does not have any other agreement or obligation that would conflict with the provisions hereof. Entertainer understands that Entertainer is not an employee of WLOCE or any related party for any purpose and expressly waives any right to receive benefits accorded to the employees of WLOCE or any related party. This agreement contains the entire understanding between the parties, supersedes all prior understanding an agreements, whether written or oral and cannot be terminated, modified or any of it’s provisions waived except by a written instrument signed by both parties. This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of applicable to contracts entered into and fully performed therein. Each of the parties irrevocably submits to the jurisdiction of any Georgia State or United States Federal Court sitting in Dekalb County, GA, in any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement. WLOCE may freely assign this Agreement and it’s rights and obligations hereunder to any third party.

And here is the corresponding section in the new AICE contract according to Furious Pete (see also)

13. Performer is free to enter into this agreement and does not have any other agreement or obligation that would conflict with the provisions hereof. Performer understands that Performer is not an employee of ALL PRO EATING Promotions or any related party for any purpose and expressly waives any right to receive benefits accorded to the employees of ALL PRO EATING Promotions or any related party. This agreement contains the entire understanding between the parties, supersedes all prior understanding and agreements, whether written or oral and cannot be terminated, modified or any of it’s provisions waived except by a written instrument signed by both parties. This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of applicable to contracts entered into and fully performed therein. Each of the parties irrevocably submits to the jurisdiction of any New York State or United States Federal Court sitting in New York County in any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement. ALL PRO EATING Promotions may freely assign this Agreement and it’s rights and obligations hereunder to any third party

The it’s represent improper use of an apostrophe which should not be used in a possessive pronoun.

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Andrew Lane, now going by “A-Bomb” instead of “Skinnyboy” has a blog entry about the agreement competitors are required to sign before participating in the upcoming WLOCE Boulder cupcake eating contest. The agreement requires signees to pay 20% of their (non-contest competitive eating updated) earnings back to WLOCE, indemnification for Shea Communications (?) and a restriction on participating in non-WLOCE sanctioned events.

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• Asparagus contest at the Stockton, CA Asparagus festival returns April 25
• Video of Pat Bertoletti completing a 29 inch pizza in 34 minutes without assistance. The pizza is probably from Barlo’s Pizza in Indianapolis
• Man vs. Food Merchandise page with 3 t-shirts and a food journal (The graphic on the right is one of the t-shirt designs)
• The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles challenge on Man vs. Food will be the spicy ramen called Special #2 at Orochon Ramen and the other foods will be the French Dip sandwich at Phillipe the Original and the Manuel Special burrito at El Tepeyac
• The Cherry Cricket will be another Denver Man vs. Food location
• ESPN.com clip of Kobayashi’s fruitcake record clip
• Chicago chili contest January 31
• Pie eating contest on UK Big Brother in honor of Obama’s inauguration

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The Brooklyn Papers has an article about about the possible effects of the Coney Island rezoning plans on the original Nathan’s location:

The beloved frankfurter franchise — which has stood on the corner Surf and Stillwell avenues since 1916 — is a possible casualty of the controversial plan because it sits on land whose value could soar after a rezoning opens it up to development.

“[Nathan’s is] assumed to be replaced under the proposed actions with a new building, containing hotel, amusement, retail and enhancing uses,” according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was posted online by the city on Friday afternoon, but not announced until the Department of City Planning distributed a press release that is embargoed until Tuesday morning.

ConeyIsland.com has a forum thread about the article.

Building a tower on top of the original Nathan’s building was mentioned as another post-rezoning possibility last February.

update The NY Post has an article and curbed.com has a blog entry containing a statement from Nathan’s CEO Eric Gatoff:

Nathan’s Famous supports all efforts to revitalize Coney Island. We remain committed to Coney Island in the long-term and we fully intend to maintain our historic flagship restaurant at 1310 Surf Avenue, which has been the heart of the company since it was established in 1916.

As to the latest report issued by the City, we believe the information relating to Nathan’s Famous is being misinterpreted and that there is no intention to replace or demolish our flagship location. In fact, the Coney Island Development Corporation’s own drawings of its intended redevelopment continue to show Nathan’s Famous in the same location on which it has stood for 93 years, on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, at the front door to the ‘People’s Playground.

update #2 The Brooklyn Paper has another article which points out that Nathan’s did not rule out replacing the existing Nathan’s restaurant on Surf & Stillwell with a completely new building.

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Summing the cash purses in the IFOCE contests list (and adding the missing 2008 Krystal finals) reveals that the combined amount of the purses increased from $128,650 to $156,050 ($10,000 was not awarded due to the Kolache Factory’s contest cancellation by Hurricane Ike) The increase was mainly due due the adding of the Oklahoma BBQ ($10,000 purse) and Famous Famigia pizza ($14,000 purse) and the increase of the Krystals finals purse from $35,000 to $50,000.

Combining the first half purses of $51,750 (2007) and $28,250 (2008) from a previous blog entry produces a total purse of $180,400 for 2007 and and $184,300 for 2008 (of which $174,300 was awarded)

The 2007 purse does not include any amounts for the Las Vegas Spike TV contests since those values have never been publicized.

A list of all the contest purses is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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The following list contains the combined cash winnings of competitive eaters in 2008 based on information in the eatfeats database. Please inform me of any inaccuracies.

All prize winners with earnings of $100 or more follows after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

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According to a comment made this morning, Micah “Wing Kong” Collins was told that “professionals” would not be allowed to compete in Wing Bowl 17 when he called 610 WIP to inquire about qualifying for that contest. In February, Angelo Cataldi said that he would like to limit entry to the 2009 Wing Bowl to amateurs. WIP appears to have followed through with that restriction.

Cataldi apparently defines “professional eater” as someone who has been associated with a professional eating organization regardless of the level of success obtained in eating contests. If that definition is used to limit entry into Wing Bowl 17, “Gentleman” Jerry Coughlan will probably be the favorite if there is any legitimacy to his top five finishes the previous two Wing Bowls.

In other Wing Bowl news, a press release announces that mail-order chicken wings endorsed by Bill “El Wingador” Simmons will be available at RastelliAtHome.com

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A comment on Megamunch reports that the towel Megamunch misplaced and subsequently acquired by a consortium called “The Light Elves” is now up for auction on craigslist. The bidding will start at $1 and will close on December 1.

The value Megamunch places on his towel brings to mind the following quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc, etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

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• BeautifulBrian.com has a commentary on the personalities of the top 50 IFOCE members
• Furious Pete is seeking input about a 3 minute eating stunt
• Tonight’s E:60 episode to have footage from the Nashville Krystal qualifier
• Gallery of the recent Washington, DC cupcake eating contest
• Picture of Joey Chestnut at the Edmonton minor league hockey game
• Joey Chestnut to receive a commendation from the San Jose City Council
• Ukrainian salo (pork fat) eating contest
• Brad Sciullo’s Belly Bruiser completion makes the Japanese news
• Gal Sone’s television appearance where she sampled and ranked all the items on Saizeriya’s menu has boosted that restaurant’s business despite the recession

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Bloomberg.com has an article about competitive pumpkin growing which says that the Wallace pumpkin farm in Rhode Island received $10,000 from a Japanese game show for hosting a pumpkin eating contest.

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• Badlands Booker, Paul Barlow and Andrew Lane are the other listed entrants for the Birmingham qualifier, but Booker’s twitter says he will probably pass on the contest and hope 51 suffices for a wild card
• NYC Famous Famigila pizza contest prize format restructured according to comment - first prize reduced to $5,000 and number of cash prizes increased to 7
• Article with the official results and video about the Chicago jalapeno contest
• Article about Stu Mesnier’s attempt to repeat as St. Louis sushi champion
• MissBusyLady unveils her apparel for female competitive eating fans.

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• Juliet Lee has an Ash Creek rib contest report
• Clam eating contest in Seattle Saturday, first prize is $100
• Ryan Nerz podcast interview in Conversations on the Road
• Furious Pete is doing marketing research on a Furious Pete hat
• A Washington Post article on the rise of college Food Studies programs reports that “Horsemen of the Esophagus” is required reading one course.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Japanese convenience store chain Lawson announced an annual increase in same store sales of 13%. Gal Sone endorsed a line of meals for Lawson in May.

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According to Badlands Booker’s myspace blog, his new line of Hungry & Focused apparel will be released on August 1. A myspace page is dedicated to the line and has pictures of the T-shirt styles which include three new designs in addition to the traditional 6XL logo.

In other competitive eating clothing news, Paul Barlow has posted a ranking of the best dressed Nathan’s finalists. He also has a myspace gallery (requires login).

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Here is the current top 10 in 2008 cash winnings based on information currently in the database. The database does not have the prize breakdown for the recent Boston Italian sausage or the Michigan Reuben contest after first place:

$15000 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
$12250 Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti
$8550 “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti
$6000 Tim “Eater X” Janus
$5750 “Furious” Pete Czerwinski
$5000 Takeru Kobayashi
$4500 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
$1600 Ian “The Invader” Hickman
$1500 Russ “The Black Hole” Keeler
$1500 Erik “The Red” Denmark

The list does not include money from eating challenges. If it did, Dale Boone would be in 8th place with $1747.

All 2008 money winners

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